But Gasol made the Raptors far better down the stretch of the regular season, shut down Orlando all-star Nikola Vucevic in the first round, and slowed Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid in the second, while Mirotic had been a nice fit.

In Game 1 Mirotic struggled with his jumper, going 2-8 with five straight three-point misses before connecting on a big one to give Milwaukee the lead midway through the fourth quarter. He also got to the free throw line quite a bit to help the comeback pay off.

At the other end, Gasol couldn’t hit either (and bricked a big three of his own in the fourth), but was whizzing the ball around, picking up a game-high five assists, before tailing off significantly in the second half, especially defensively, where he was lit up by Brook Lopez, who attempted 11 three-pointers and had 29 points.

Both teams could use more from their big acquisitions moving forward in this series.

GASOL ON EMBIID CONSOLATION

At shootaround, Marc Gasol shed a little more light on why he consoled Joel Embiid after Philadelphia was eliminated.

“I just told him how I felt. I care about him. As a big man, I understand what he comes from. We shared the same agent. Before he even got to the NBA, he was living in his place,” Gasol said. “I heard a lot of stories about Joel. I’ve always been a big fan of him and his personality. It’s between me and him (what was said).” Gasol said it was a normal reaction to tell Embiid he’d be on the other side of things too down the line, with big wins.

“No question,” Gasol said when asked if he’d been on that other side. “Sadly in sports, you’re gonna be on the losing side more than the winning side. It’s just the way professional sports work. You lose more than you win. Sadly, but it’s true.

“Sports are emotional, man. You invest so much. You carry that (and give) so much to something. When it’s over, you kind of melt, and it’s normal. It shows how much you care. I have no issue with that.” Gasol said teammates have consoled him in the past.

Speaking of which, his longtime friend and Spanish teammate Jose Calderon happened to be attending Game 7 (Calderon got a huge ovation from the fans and remains one of the most popular Raptors ever).

“I saw Jose the day before. We went out for coffee. His kids were there, my kids were there. It just showed how much time has passed (because the kids are getting older but Gasol and Calderon have been playing together for about 1.5 decades or so) and how fortunate you are to be on this side right now and winning and playing for a big goal, and a bigger goal than any player. To me, it’s always about this,” Gasol said.

BLEDSOE COMES TO LIFE, EVENTUALLY

Eric Bledsoe is going to be an issue for the Raptors in the team’s playoff series with the Milwaukee Bucks.

It didn’t really appear that way early on during Wednesday night’s opener in Wisconsin, Bledsoe was scoreless with only two shot attempts and had been soundly outplayed by Kyle Lowry by halftime.

Toronto built a 59-51 lead, but whatever was said at the break clearly resonated with Bledsoe, who scored seven quick points in the first few minutes of the third as Milwaukee made a push.

The Bucks had basically stolen Bledsoe from Phoenix in a trade before last season. He has been a great fit and is expected to make either the first or second All-Defensive team this year.

But he was outplayed by Lowry on this night.

A LOT TO PLAY FOR

Nobody knows what the future holds, whether Kawhi Leonard is staying or going, who will be back and who will go, and that was on the mind of the Raptors when they closed out Philadelphia. Even if they didn’t want to admit it.

“You try not to think about that that much. You try not to think about the finality of things,” said Fred VanVleet. “It’s win or go home, and the go home part is never an option. It’s going into the game and knowing what’s at stake, knowing we’re trying to advance, that we’ve got a lot more better basketball to play.

“Now it’s time to move on. You don’t really think about the consequences too much. You’re just super locked-in, trying to move forward,” he had said.

“Obviously it doesn’t get any easier from here. We know what (the Bucks) bring to the table.”

FRED’S GOLD

A couple more gems from VanVleet from the other night, first on the shot, Vince Carter’s shot, and Kawhi: “No (he doesn’t remember Carter’s miss). Eighteen years ago I was seven. If I was watching it, I probably don’t remember,” VanVleet said. “Obviously I’ve seen that play before. Just to see it fast forward and put everything in perspective, to be able to make a shot like that for this franchise and what that means going forward.

“For us as a team, just trying to stay locked in and understanding it’s a really special moment, but we’ve got a lot more work to do. We have big lofty goals for ourselves.”

And on the Kawhi vs. Kevin Durant debate:

“Kawhi?” (Why?) “He’s my friend. Honestly, I don’t get into those debates. It’s who you like,” he said. “My whole thing with that is if you’re in the discussion, you’re doing something right. He’s up there with the best of ’em. At that point, it’s splitting hairs with who you like and who you don’t like. It’s just personal preference.”

Durant and Leonard were the two leading playoff scorers entering Wednesday.

AROUND THE RIM

Gasol on playing 45 minutes in Game 7 against Philadelphia: “I feel good. If coach wants to play me 48 I’m up for it. That is what you want, right? You want to be out there as much as you can. You want to be able to help with your team and be on the floor” … Condolences to the Babcock family on the death of Rob Babcock from cancer. Babcock was the fourth general manager (third permanent GM) in Raptors history and his best move was signing Calderon from Spain … Giannis likely will win his first MVP award for his work this season. How many times has Toronto faced the player who would go on to win MVP in the playoffs? Just once, Allen Iverson in 2001. Part of that is because the West has dominated the MVP award since Toronto first made the playoffs in 2000, winning the award all but six years (and LeBron James won four times, just none of the years he faced the Raptors) … Bucks fans must hate Norman Powell. Previous management made an awful trade for Greivis Vasquez that gifted the Raptors both Powell and the pick that became OG Anunoby, then Powell helped swing the playoff series between the two teams a couple of years ago. Powell also contributed on Wednesday in limited minutes, hitting a couple of three-pointers.

LOWRY’S BLUE THUMB SPLINT SEEMED TO WORK

Kyle Lowry’s sore left thumb was a major topic of conversation earlier Wednesday. Would it impact his shooting, would it hinder him significantly?

“It’s fine. It’s whatever. Just trying to keep some circulation, get some I’m fine. There you go, I’m good,” Lowry said after tossing aside the blue splint he had been wearing.

Lowry said he was wearing the implement in order to speed up his recovery. He also joked that it’s useful for cooking.

Lowry said while the thumb issue impacts how he grips the ball and passes it, it would be “mind over matter and we’ll tape it up and get it ready to go.”

Lowry seemed in peak form early in Game 1 against the Milwaukee Bucks, nailing his first two shots, both three-pointers. Lowry also handed out an assist, grabbed a steal and hauled in a couple of boards, one of them an offensive rebound that then led to a Kawhi Leonard floater.

He never slowed down, playing a stellar game as the best Raptor on the floor.

Lowry had heard a fair bit heading into this series about his past struggles against Milwaukee but it wasn’t apparent here.

“I just haven’t played well. The one game I missed a lot of shots and they forced me made the passes to Serge (Ibaka), I think Serge shot like 20-something times that game and that was their game plan,” Lowry had said. “The other couple I just didn’t play well, that stuff doesn’t matter, that’s regular season.”

But what about George Hill outplaying him in two past playoff series (one with Indiana, one with Cleveland), how much of that should matter?

“Nothing. It’s a different year, different playoffs, different game. It’s a new series,” Lowry said.

“Everything’s different. Every game will be different, everything in the past is gone, everything we’ve done, they’ve done, doesn’t matter. Now it’s about tonight and get ready to go.”

And ready to go Toronto’s all-star point guard was.

MORE THAN THE GREEK FREAK

Job 1 for the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference Finals will be to somehow slow down Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Nobody’s figured out how yet and the Greek Freak is going to win league MVP honours, the first of potentially a few such trophies for him.

“You definitely try to just contain him. It’s going to be a battle,” predicted Pascal Siakam ahead of Game 1 on Wednesday.

“Obviously we know he’s great in transition and at the rim, so that’s something that you try to take away as much as you can. But the guy is talented and he does it with ease, most of the time when you look at it.” Head coach Nick Nurse had said in his pre-game remarks that Toronto would have to find a way to both prevent easy paint scores, while also getting out to contest Milwaukee three-point shots.

“No, it’s not easy at all. He and the rest of their team make it as hard probably as it is in this league. But you’ve got to protect the rim, you’ve got to protect the free throw line, don’t send him to the line, and you’ve got to contest the shots somehow,” Nurse said.

“And we’ve got to help. And when you do help, they try to kick it out, and you’ve got to either rotate, right, to contest, or you’ve got to — forget the rotation, just hustle. Sometimes it’s not very perfect, the rotations, and you’ve just got to bust your butt and get out there. And then after that you’ve got to go find somebody to block out because they’re crashing the boards, too.”

The Raptors did an excellent job on Antetokounmpo in the first half on Wednesday, making him work extremely hard for everything. They packed the paint well without fouling too often, and forced him into three turn­overs and 6-13 shooting. Of course he was still effective, that’s just how good he is.

But the Bucks didn’t end up with the NBA’s best record just because of one man.

“I think they have the right players around too. So it’s not like five people can just guard him and then you’ll be OK,” Siakam said. “You have to worry about all the other guys, too.”